Ceiling amd floor plate



A. c. GAYNOR.

CEILING AND FLOOR PLATE.

APPLICATION HLED MAY26,1919.-

Patented Apr. 6, 1920.

llflVly-INTOR AT-TORNEY A. c. G'AYNQR.

CEILING AND FLOOR PLATE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 26, 1919.

.133573Q Patented Apr. 6, 1920:

2 SHEETS-SHEET Z- mvgMToR A'TTORNEY ARTHUR C. GAYNOR, F STRATFORD,CONNECTICUT.

CEILING AND FLOOR PLATE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 6, 1920.

Application filed May 26, 191a Serial No. 299,764.

To all whom it may concern:

citizen of the United States, residing at Stratford, county ofFairfield, State of Gonnecticut, have invented an Improvement in Ceilingand Floor Plates, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to the class of ceiling and floor plates, eachconsisting of two interchangeable members, described and claimed in myPatent No. 1,229,061, dated J unc 5, 1917, and the present invention hasfor its object to provide a structure of this type, so improved indetails of construction as to reduce the cost of production by automaticmachinery to the minimum, and furthermore to greatly improve theoperation in attaching and detaching the plates.

A further object of the invention is to provide a plate, the members ofwhich shall in cline downward from the semi-circular recess toward theedge, the effect of which is to cause the tongues to ride down aninclined plane in the locking movement, and produce a binding actionbetween the tongues and the keepers which effectually prevents loosenessand rattling of the members, and re tains the members in the lockedposition.

A further object of the invention is to produce a plate of thischaracter in which the springs are so constructed and arranged as tohave a resultant force parallel to and in the direction of the lockingmovement of the members and of sufficient magnitude to hold the memberssecurely locked together, so that when the plate is in place on a pipethe springs, as well as the inclines and tongues, will act to retain themembers in that position, and in, the assembling operation will act toprevent any tendency of the members to buckle.

With these and other objects in view I have devised the novel ceilingand floor plate which I will now describe referring to the accompanyingdrawings forming a part of this specification and using referencecharacters to indicate the several parts.

Figure 1 is a plan view of my novel floor plate, the members being inthe assembled position;

Fig. 2 a corresponding inverted plan View;

Fig. 3 an edge View corresponding with Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 a section on the line 44 in Fig.

looking in the direction of the arrows;

Fig. 5 an inverted plan View showing a pipe in section and showing theposition of the members at the beginning of the assembling operation.

Fig. 6 a similar view showing the members in the assembled position andshowing theaction of the springs in retaining them locked together.

Fig. 7 a view partly in elevation and partly in section on the line 77in Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrows;

Figs. 8 and 9 views corresponding with Figs. 1 and 2, illustrating amodified form of spring, and a modified form of keeper;

Fig. 10 a section on the line 10-10 in Fig. 8 looking in the directionof the arrows;

Fig. 11 an inverted plan view showing the position of the members beforethe passage of the tongues into the keepers;

Fig. 12 a detail perspective view on an enlarged scale showing a tongueand housing in disassembled relation, and

Fig. 13 is a perspective view illustrating another modified form ofspring.

20 denotes the interchangeable members which are blanked out and formedfrom sheet metal. Each member is provided with the usual semi-circularrecess, said recesses together forming a central opening 21 adapted toreceive a pipe 22, on one side of the recess with a forwardly projectingtongue 23, and on the other side of the recess with a keeper 24 which isadapted to be engaged by the tongue of the cooperating member. At theedge of each semi-circular recess is a downwardly turned flange 25 andat'the outer edge of the member is a downwardly turned flange 26.

When the members are in the assembled position and the plate as a wholeis in' the horizontal position, as when lying on a table, the inner edgeof each member, that is at the central opening, is appreciably higherthan the outer edge, the top of the plate inclining downward and outwardfrom the curve at the intersection of flange 25 with the top to thecurve at the intersection of flange 26 with the top. Eachtongue isofi'setfrom the plane of the top to adapt it to engage a keeper, leavinga shoulder 28 at the intersection of the tongue with the edge of themember. The height of the shoulder is greatest at the inner edge of thetongue, see Fig. 12, so that the tongue instead of lying parallel withthe plane of the top will lie obliquely thereto and approximately in thehorizontal plane, the purpose of which will presently be explained. Theconfiguration of the tongues is substantially the same in the severalforms. I have shown the tongues as shaped like a blunt and rounded spearpoint. Each tongue is provided in its outer edge contiguous to the edgeof the member with a locking notch 27 which is adapted to cooperate witha locking wall 29 on a keeper.

The shape of the keepers may vary considerably without departing fromthe prin ciple of the invention, it being simply necessary that they beadapted to serve as guides for the tonguesin assembling and that eachkeeper be provided with a locking wall adapted to cooperate with thelocking notch in the corresponding tongue. Each keeper is formed frommetal projecting from the edge of the member which is folded over underthe member leaving a space to receive a tongue between the keeper andthe under side of the member. In the form illustrated in Figs. 2, 5, 6and 7, the keeper is joined to the member by a strap of metal, indicatedby 32, which forms an approximately vertical wall, the inner edge ofwhich serves as the locking wall 29. In order to insure that this wallwill be approximately vertical when the members are formed by automaticmachinery, I form a slot 30 at the intersection of the strap with thekeeper, before the keeper is folded under the edge of the member, onewall of this slot, in the finished member, forming the top of thelocking wall. The effect of this slot is to prevent distortion of themetal at the cor ner in bending the keeper to a position at right anglesto the strap, thus leaving the locking wall vertical. For convenience inassembling, the outer free edge of the keeper is flared outward slightlyat the corner, as at 31, which facilitates entrance of the tongue.

The form illustrated in Figs. 9, l1 and 12 differs in that each end ofthe keeper is attached to the member by a strap 32. Lock ing wall 29 isthe same as before but instead of slot 30 I form a much larger androunded slot 33 in the keeper, and in order to facilitate the entranceof the tongue I flare the'metal outward, as at 34:.

As ceiling and floor plates are necessarily -made larger than the pipesthey inclose, it

is cu'stomaryto provide the members with springs which grip the pipewith suihcient power to hold the plates securely in place and to preventrattling. An important feature of my present invention is that I providethe members with springs which act in aline parallel, or nearly so, withthe line of movement in looking the members together, so that theresultant force holds the members locked together and also avoids anytendency of the members to buckle in assemwhich the plate is intended.

bling. In the form illustrated in Figs. 1, E3, 4l, 5 and 6 I use a-wirespring 36 which is attached to the back of flange 25 by a lip of metal,indicated by 85, which is clamped down upon the wire and holds itfirmly. The ends of the spring are curved and recurved to form contactpoints 37 and 38 which pass through slots 39 in flange 25 and bearagainst the pipe when in use. An important feature of the invention isthat one of the slots 39 and the corresponding contact point in eachmember are placed relatively near one end of the flange so that thespring action will be substantially parallel to and in the direction ofmovement of the -members in looking them together, the springs thenacting to retain them locked together. The form illustrated in Figs. 8,9, 10 and 11 differs in that sheet metal springs are used which areformed integral with the members, each spring consisting of a curvedneck 40 which extends from flange 25 and is provided at its free endwith a bearing plate ll which lies approximately parallel with flange2'5 and is curved to correspond approximately with the size of pipes forIn this form one end of the bearing plate extends beyond the member,thereby securing to the fullest extent a resultant force acting in theline of the locking movement of the members in placing a plate upon apipe.

The form illustrated in Fig. 13 differs in that the spring 42 is formedfrom flange 25 itself, the flange being separated from the member at theline of intersection for half, more or less, of its length and sprunginward slightly, as clearly shown in Fig. 13, thereby securing the samespring action in the assembled position of the members as in the otherforms.

The operation of assembling the members and locking them together is thesame in each of the several forms, it being immaterial whether thekeeper is attached to the edge of the member by one strap or two. Therelative position of the locking walls on the keepers and the lockingnotches in the tongues, see Figs. 5 and 11, is such that the ends of themembers,when first brought into contact with each other, must be adistance out of alinement corresponding with the depth of the lockingnotches in the tongues, a lateral movement of the members relatively toeach other being required to complete the locking operation. It hasalready been explained that the tongues instead of lying parallel to theplane "of the top of the plate lie obliquely thereto and inapproximately a horizontal plane,so that when the tongues have beenpassed into the keepers and the lateral lock'i'ngmovement is given tothe members the tongues will ride down the inclined under sides of themembers and will be thereby sprung slightly isssgvso out of their normalplane, the effect of this binding action being to prevent rattling ofthe members and retain them in the locked position by the friction ofthe tongues on cooperating members. This frictional engagement issu'flicient to keep the members locked together under ordinary handling.hen the members are in place on a pipe the frictional engagement of thetongues with the members is supplemented by the action of the springswhich are so situated as to have a resultant force parallel to and inthe direction of the locking movement.

Having thus described my invention I claim:

1. A plate of the character described comprising members each providedwith a tongue having a locking notch and a keeper having a locking wall,the wall and notch of complementary members engaging by lateralmovement, each member inclining downward from inner to outer edge, andeach tongue being offset and lying considerably obliquely to the inclineso that the locking movement will produce a binding action between thetongues and the inclines of complementary members and hold the membersin en agement.

2. plate of the character described comprising the combination withmembers, each provided with a tongue having a locking notch and a keeperhaving a locking wall, the top of each member inclining downward frominner to outer edge and each tongue lying considerably obliquely to theincline, of pipe engaging springs relatively near one end of each memberand'acting in the line of the locking movement.

3. A plate member of the character described having a semi-circularrecess, upon one side of said recess a tongue having a locking notch andupon the other side of said recess a keeper having a locking wall, thetop of the member inclining downward and outward from the recess to theedge and the tongue being offset and lying considerably obliquely to theincline.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

ARTHUR C. GAYNOR.

